$1.7M may go to trails abutters in Southbridge, Dudley

A proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit calls for the federal government to pay $1,686,228 to 84 abutters of a former railroad line in Southbridge and Dudley, the plaintiffs' lawyer said this week

Judge Thomas C. Wheeler in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., held that the government was liable for taking the plaintiffs' land without authorization.

Missouri law firm Baker, Sterchi, Cowden & Rice filed the lawsuit. Lawyer Steven M. Wald said in the letter he expects the federal government to formally approve the tentative settlement, which still requires final approval from government officials and the court.

Southbridge Town Councilor Conrad L. Vandal said he was notified he's set to receive close to $21,000 from the proposed settlement.

It is for an apartment building on Hamilton Street in Southbridge that Mr. Vandal has since sold.

“I knew I didn't own the railroad tracks, but I didn't know I owned the land under it,” Mr. Vandal said, adding he “wasn't at all angry” about being told he'd get money for a property he no longer owns.

The town of Southbridge, a plaintiff, is due to receive $42,515, according to a letter from the firm.

Mr. Wald told a reporter he is “cautiously optimistic” the settlement will be approved.

The government agreed to pay all of the landowners' legal expenses of $765,000 in the proposal, Mr. Wald said.

Charles Miller, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, confirmed that the parties have been in settlement negotiations, but had no further comment.

At issue is a 7.4-mile section of trail in Southbridge, Dudley and a small piece of Webster, according to the case history.

It's part of the nearly 11-mile Quinebaug River Valley Trail, which the state is developing into a recreational trail with the communities and volunteers.

The state bought the abandoned railroad line from the Providence & Worcester Railroad Co. in 2004 for $1.3 million.

P&W stopped using the rail line in 1988.

Mr. Wald said the federal government authorized the abandoned railroad line to be converted to a recreational trail, instead of allowing it to revert to the landowners along the railroad line.

Had the federal government done nothing and allowed state law to run its course, these landowners would have been entitled to possession and control of the land in the railroad right of way, Mr. Wald said.

“If there is a taking, the U.S. government is responsible even if another public entity actually establishes the recreational trail, because the entity acquiring the trail is acting pursuant to U.S. government authority. When the federal government puts into play a series of events which result in a taking of private property, the fact that the government acts through a state agent does not absolve it from the responsibility, and the consequences, of its actions,” Judge Wheeler wrote.

The right-of-way was acquired by Massachusetts pursuant to a Notice of Interim Trail Use or Abandonment issued by the federal Surface Transportation Board.

Through issuance of the NITU, the government “blocked the extinguishment of the easement” and imposed a use of the right-of-way that was not within the scope of the original easement, the judge said.

Issuance of the NITU is a taking under the Fifth Amendment for which plaintiffs are entitled to recover, he said.

The government argued that the plaintiffs' property interest was subject to the reserved right of the commonwealth to acquire the land for any public purpose.

It also said that a recreational trail use is within the scope of the original easement.

But the court found neither argument persuasive, according to the order.

Town Manager Christopher Clark credited then-Southbridge Town Council Chairman Steven S. Lazo for alerting him to Mr. Wald's firm's efforts in 2009.

Mr. Clark said Mr. Lazo asked him to attend a meeting with the firm, which had rented space at Fins & Tales restaurant in Southbridge to meet with area abutters.

“For me, going over, signing the town up and going through the council to let them know we put (the case) on file, I figured what the heck?”

Gaining the money in exchange “for an evening meeting” was a good return, Mr. Clark added.

Mr. Lazo said he learned about the law firm's efforts when the lawyer contacted his father's trust, which is also slated to receive money in the settlement.

“I said, 'Let's meet, let's look at the map. I know a lot of people in town.' I noticed the town had a lot of land abutting.”

Mr. Lazo said he telephoned as many abutters as he knew.

“I'm happy for everybody that got some money out of it, including the town,” he said.

It's a case of the government doing whatever it wanted, “as usual,” Mr. Lazo asserted.

“They just throw their money all over the place, and the people who are really owed it are just overlooked,” he said.

Mr. Wald credited his colleagues Robert Sears in St. Louis and Thomas S. Stewart and Elizabeth G. McCulley in Kansas City for assisting with the four-year effort.

Mr. Wald said in his letter to Southbridge he was hopeful the settlements would be paid by August.